Nearly a dozen witnesses appeared in Solano County Superior Court on Tuesday to testify about the day a veteran Vallejo police officer was killed in the line of duty pursuing a bank-robbery suspect.

The suspect, Fairfield resident Henry Albert Smith Jr., 38, faces a murder charge with special circumstances in connection with the gunshot slaying of Vallejo police officer and Vacaville resident Jim Capoot, 45, on Nov. 17, 2011. Solano County prosecutors on Tuesday began presenting evidence in the case on the first day of a two-day probable-cause hearing.

It was shortly before 1:30 p.m. when Jessica Arroyo, a merchant teller at the Bank of America branch on Springs Road in Vallejo, was approached by a man holding a bag, partially obscuring his face.

"He told me to put the money in the bag and don't say anything and don't press the button," Arroyo testified.

She said she put about $3,000 in the bag and alerted her manager once the suspect left.

Standing behind the suspect was Nabil Saleh, a customer in line at the bank who ran to the parking lot, where he saw the suspect running away.

Saleh testified that he saw the suspect run behind a nearby shopping complex and get into an SUV. Saleh then followed him through Vallejo until Capoot took over the chase.

Capoot was joined in the pursuit by Vallejo police Officer Peppino Messina.

Messina testified that they pursued the SUV at a high rate of speed along surface streets and eventually onto Highway 37. The pursuit would end in North Vallejo, when Capoot performed a PIT (pursuit intervention technique) maneuver on the SUV in front of a home in the 100 block of Janice Street.

Messina saw the suspect get out of his car and flee on foot, with Capoot chasing after him. The next time he saw his fellow officer, Capoot was clinging to life.

Searching for Capoot, he saw his radio microphone dangling over a fence. He testified that he pushed the fence down and entered the back yard through a narrow side yard.

"I noticed Jim was laying face down," Messina testified. "He was very unresponsive. He made some moaning noises but no verbal words."

While attempting CPR, more officers were arriving and setting up a perimeter in the area.

Vallejo police Officer Alan Caragan testified that he saw a man hop a fence several houses down the street into a front yard.

At that moment, Lt. Lee Horton was driving up on the scene and sped up to the man who appeared to be walking casually across the street. But as Horton got closer, the pedestrian picked up his pace.

It would turn out to be Smith, Horton testified, who was subsequently taken into custody after trying to force entry into a home, while yelling, "Let me in, the police are trying to kill me."

In his left front pocket was a loaded .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun with five bullets in the magazine and one in the chamber, police testified.

Also taking the witness stand on Tuesday was Dr. Susan Hogan, a forensic pathologist for the Solano County Sheriff/Coroner's Office.

Hogan testified that Capoot died from a gunshot wound to the torso. In performing the autopsy, Hogan testified that she documented a bullet entry wound to Capoot's lower back, which exited his chest. A second abrasion was noted to his shoulder area.

A bullet had also struck Capoot's gun, which was still holstered, according to testimony.

His Taser was laying above his head when officers found him.

If ordered to stand trial, the special circumstance allegations, if found true by a jury, would subject Smith to a penalty of either life in prison without possibility of parole, or the death penalty. Prosecutors have yet to make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty.

Smith is also charged with having personally and intentionally discharged a firearm during the commission of murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and having a prior serious felony, or "strike" conviction.

Testimony is set to resume at 10 a.m. today in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge Peter B. Foor. Smith remains in Solano County Jail custody without bail.